]\EW ENGL.AND FARMER, 



AND GARDENER'S JOURNAL. 



TOt. XIII. 



PUBLISHED BV GEORGE C. BARRETT, NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STKEET, (Aokicultukal Wabiho«se.)-T. G. FESSENDEN, EDITOR." 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 23, 1835. 



NO. 37. 



We ire under great obligations to the editor of the Norlhamplon 

 Courier fur ,i corrected copy of tlie following aMe article, ivhicli 

 wo were anilnlious of transferring to our columns. 



IIou. S. LATIIROP'S ADDRESS 



BEFOHE THE 

 HAMPDEN AND FRANKLIN 



H A M P S H I R F. 



AGRICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 



No occasion could be presented, on wliiclr I 

 should take gieatcr pleasure in addressing any 

 portion of niy fellow citizens, than that wiiich lias 

 now called us together, had my occupations, 

 habits, and pursuits been such as to cultivate and 

 matu|;e the qualifications necessary to enable nie 

 to impart instruction or entertainment to my 

 auditors. 



The science of agriculture, taken in all its 

 branches and departments, as usually practised in 

 New England, is one of the most comprehensive 

 and midtifarions of all the departments of indus- 

 try. Almost every farmer will find within the 

 range of his superintendence, a great variety of 

 soil, the wet and the di>y, the cold and the warm, 

 the fertile and the barren, the light and the heavv 

 the clayey and the sandy. Each of these varie- 

 ties, in order to the developement of its latent ener- 

 gies at the least e.xpense, with the least e.xhaustion, 

 snd the most for the benefit of the cultivator, re- 

 li;'ic.- ;i great di>-ersily .>:" i.ianagement i^ its j,.t'- 

 [laration, in its cultivation, in the kind of manure 

 which may be ajiplied with the greatest prospect 

 yf an adequate return, and in the nature of the 

 :rop best adajjted to the soil. 



We have also a great variety of crops to culti- 

 vate, different kinds of grain, grasses, fruits and 

 regetables. Now all these require different kinds 

 >f management in order to their successful culture • 

 ind they are each of them, better adapted to some 

 (articular kind of soil, than to others. It is not 

 very soil, with the most skilful culture, that will 

 eward the labor of the husbandman with a good 

 rop of wheat or of corn. Some soils will pro- 

 uce a liberal crop of grass, others will not ; and 

 mong the cultivated grasses, some are ])ecu- 

 arly adapted to a particular kind of soil, where 

 thers will entirely fail. 



The application of the various kinds of manure 

 jquires the exercise of a sound discretion, in- 

 ructed by experience and observation. These 

 irious kinds are particularly adapted to their ap- 

 ropriate soils. While they will all produce a 

 dutary and beneficial effect jvhen properly ap- 

 ed, they will fiiil, or nearly so, when niisa)*jilied. 

 ume kinds of manure will admit of a more gcn- 

 •al application than others, but none of them will 

 Irait of an indiscriminate application, but at the 

 izard of an almost total loss. 

 The rearing and the management of the differ- 

 it species of animals connected with our agri- 

 iltural concerns, is another branch of industry, 

 hich requires, in order to its successful and 

 Gnomical pursuit, a variety of knowledge and 

 ill, which can be learned only by a long course 



observation and personal experience. 

 Besides, the business of the farmer does not. 



like that of the operatives in most of our mechani- 

 cal and manufacturing establishments, admit of 

 divisions and sub-divisions, so that one branch of 

 business may be assigned to one set of hands, and 

 another to others. But the various dciiartments 

 of calculation, direction and execution press on. 



in succession, with respect to the particular objects 

 of the season, and every object, in its turn, claims 

 the whole energies of the operatives. We cannot 

 confine one set of hands to ploughing and sowing 

 througliout the year, and another to rcajiing and 

 gathering into our barns. Every branch of busi- 

 ness has its appropriate season. It must then be 

 done, or not at all. And much, very much 

 of the pleasure and comfort, as well as the suc- 

 cess attending the fanner's pursuits, depend on 

 ills being prepared to occupy each and every sea- 

 son of the year with its peculiarly a])prbpriate 

 business, upon his being ready, at all times, to drive 

 his work, and not suffer his work to drive him. 

 Tlie man who suffers one dej)artment to fall be- 

 hind its season, and thus to encroach upon ano- 

 tlier, is in danger of finding everything jostled 

 out of place. He will be hurried and fretted in 

 all his labors, and will inevitably meet with loss 

 and disappointment. 



Now all these multifarious operations, and 

 n.any oth;rf. wbifrli nwi'l.l be ineiiiion -d, can bo 

 learned and successfully performed, only by the 

 application of intelligence, observation and ex- 

 perience. To instruct others in the art of hus- 

 bandry, requires a fund of knowledge drawn 

 from actual experience, by the application of 

 strict attention to all the various operations con- 

 nected with it, and to the minute details of season, 

 weather, labor and other circumstances which have 

 coud)iiied their influence to produce the result. 

 In connexion with his own experience and obser- 

 vation, the farmer may derive salutary informa- 

 tion from the experience of others. But there are 

 so many causes which operate, either separately 

 or combined, upon every agricultural experiment, 

 and so nuuiy circumstances exerting an influ- 

 ence which tnay vary the result, that l;ut little re- 

 liance can be placed upon the success or failure of 

 any one experiment. In order to determine 

 whether the experiment is adapted to our situation, 

 we must know the particular kind of soil, its con- 

 dition and crops, the preparation and jirevious 

 cultivation. And this is not all. There is no class 

 of men, who are more immediately dependent on 

 the dispensations of Providence, and who are com- 

 pelled, more emphatically, to see and to feel that 

 dependence, in all their operations, than farmers. 

 The reward of tlieir labors depends on the season ; 

 and the state of the weather at particular seasons 

 of the year, in regard to beat and cold, drought 

 and moisture, often exerts a decisive and con- 

 trolling effect upon the success of their efforts; 

 so that the same course of cultivation upon the 

 same or similar soils, will, iii different years, pro- 

 duce different results. The success or failure 

 often depends upon minute and apparently trivial 



range of j -,bable conjecture, but frequently set 

 at defiance all human calculations. 



The cireutnstances which I have alluded, .serve 

 to show that the farmer's teacher, in his ap])ropri- 

 atc oecii|)atlnn, ought himself to be an observing 

 and a practical man. You all know that my 

 situation and engagements have been such, as to 

 deprive me of the opportunity of acquiring tliat 

 degree of knowledge in the various departments 

 of agriculture, which would qualify me to impart 

 instruction to those who have devoted their whole 

 time and attention to a personal superintendence 

 and direction of their agricultural interests. 

 Although none of the varied occupations or pur- 

 suits to which I htue been called, has afforded 

 me more satisfaction and self-enjoyment than tha 

 care of my farm, yet my time and attention have 

 been so nuich absorbed by other avocations and 

 pursuits, as to forbid my attempting anything 

 beyond a humble imitation of the best models 

 placed before me among my fellow citizens, and 

 m this imitation, I have lacked leisure or indus- 

 try to note the course pursued and the consequent 

 results, with such particularity, as to enable me to 

 deduce conclusions worthy of much regard. 



In the early part of my agricultural life, my 

 attention u as attracted to the culture of wheat, 

 and.'. i(>u; t.jn of my land I I's eve- ;!;iico •>eer> 



annually appropriated to this grain. I will there- 

 fore occupy your time for the brief space allotted 

 to me, with a few observations on Ibis subject. 



This article constitutes no inconsiderable ingre- 

 dient in the food of our population. Its consump- 

 tion has greatly increased within a few veara, 

 and it will continue to increase with our numbers, 

 but more especially with the extension of our 

 manufacturing establishments. It must be sound 

 policy lor the farmers of New England, to produce, 

 as far as is practicable, a supply of such articles, 

 as enter into the consumption of our own inhabit- 

 ants. We are not favored, like our brethren in 

 the Southern States, with some great staplei 

 of production, which we can raise upon terms 

 more favorable than other countries, and which 

 we can export, in exchange for a supply of other 

 necessaries. We raise but few products for a 

 foreign market, and these, to a very limited ex- 

 tent. Our market is at home, and our produc- 

 tions must chiefly be consumed among ourselves. 

 It is important for us to endeavor to monopolize 

 this market, so far as we can, by our industry and 

 skill, produce the articles which the taste and 

 necessities of the. inhabitants require. 



The soil of New England is capable of sustain- 

 ing a population vastly beyond that which is now 

 settled on its territory. The State of Massachu- 

 setts contains a population more dense, than any 

 other on the Union. If her soil were improved 

 and cultivated to its utmost limits, the inhabitanta 

 now dwelling in it, would consume but a small 

 part of its products. There is no necessity then, 

 on account of the incapacity of the soil to pro- 

 duce a supply, that we should import any of the 



circumstances, which ore sometimes within the I principal articles of food from other States. The 



